The cpa gene was detected in all
C. perfringens isolates by PCR, so all the isolates were confirmed as
C. perfringens. Of the 95 C. perfringens isolates, 40 (40%), 31 (31%),
and 24 (24%) were isolated from beef, chicken meat, and turkey
meat samples, respectively. Prevalence of C. perfringens significantly
differed between beef and chicken meat samples, and beef
and turkey meat samples (P < 0.05), while the difference between
chicken and turkey meat samples were not significantly different. It
was detected that 84 out of 95 C. perfringens isolates were type A,
while two of them carried both cpa and cpe genes (type A-cpe) and
8 of them possessed cpa and cpb2 gene (type A-cpb2). The results of
the present study indicate that C. perfringens type A is the most
predominant type in the meat samples. Similar results have been
reported that type A is the dominant type of C. perfringens in
worldwide [11,15e20].